Understanding the ocean's changing chemistry

Ocean chemistry is changing faster right now than at any time over the past 50 million years. “We are fundamentally altering marine ecosystems,” says NOAA oceanographer Simone Alin, Ph.D. With her colleagues at NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL), Alin is responsible for monitoring the rapidly changing chemistry of seawater and understanding the ramifications for the world’s oceans, particularly the highly productive, fisheries-rich coastal waters off the west coast of North America.

Questioning rivers in the sky

Since the 1960s scientists have used the so-called "butterfly effect" to explain why we struggle to predict such extreme events with more than two weeks of advanced notice. But Elizabeth Barnes, Assistant Professor at Colorado State University, is pushing the envelope. Barnes likes making complex things simple, and with her team is turning the theory about Earth’s chaotic weather patterns on its head.

Interpreting climate for students, the media, and other scientists

Improving wind forecasts to increase reliance on renewable energy

NOAA meteorologists like Matt Brewer with the Air Resources Laboratory are improving short-term wind forecasts, developing the science necessary for the country to increase reliance on renewable energy.

Crunching data collected on a tail wind

A research scientist with the NOAA-funded Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Owen Cooper studies air pollutants to support informed management decisions concerning air quality.